The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1887-08-06

Rabbi"
1t is easy to see how such an oppres-
sive routine would take all the life out
of every natural religious impulse, and
in place Of quick conscience for
meanness, greed, cruelty, and shame,
would put an exaggerated fear of trans
crossing some triviality Of the Rabbis.
This fear was so dominant that some
have said that the psalmist, praying
"Cleanse thou me from secret faults"
means, not that he would be kept from
the hidden sins of the heart, but that
he may not, through ignorance, disre-
gard any of the requirements of the
ritual. The Rabbits said that the AL
mighty spent three hours each day in
the study of the law, and that he held
disputes with the angels over knotty
points. Ina word, God was the Chief
Rabbi, and heaven was Rabbinical
school. What wonder that Christ's
word was hailed as bringing deliver
ance from slavery, when he removed
this terrible incubus from the free as
pirations of the soul toward Godi
What wonder that they said of him,
"Never man so spakel"
III. In this examination Of the
sources of the power Of Christ's teach
ing, we have now considered two ele-
ments-that he appealed to new and
uplifting principle for the regener-
alton of humanity THAT of faith), and
that he called to a righteousness uni
versal and real. AS a third and last
element in the power Of his word, we
may consider, the peculiar authority
with which he spoke.
We are told that they who listened to
the Sermon on the Mount wondered at
his doctrine, or teaching, because he
spoke with authority, and not as the
scribes. The scribes were the ortho-
dOx Jews, who, like some very eminent
theologians at the present day, looked
with unqualified and pious horror upon
any doctrines not written down in the
creeds. Their first question never was,
'Is this doctrine truep" but always,
"Is there any precedent for it; is it Or
thodox ?" Here came a man who
cared nothing for proceed emit, who bold
ly affirmed that his teaching was to
supersede the orthodoxy of the time. So
they said of him, "This man is here
tic; he blasphemes; away with him,
cruelty him!" 1t is a matter which
ought to fill US with the deepest melan-
choly, that to SO great an extent it
is the spirit of the scribes which has
descended upon the churches rather
than the spirit of Christ. If the
Master were to come again to-day and
repeat the same doctrines that he
TAUGHT before, in words that have not
become familiar to US through a
mechanical ecclesiastical interpreta-
ton, the members of our churches
to-day would be astonished at his doc
trines, and would say: HE speaks
with authority, and not as the theo-
logians." He would say to us, "For-
sake the leadership of these latter day
Rabbits, and follow me. They tell you
to believe in their falsely-named
apostles creed, in their Nicene creed,
in their Athanasian creed, in their
Westminster confession, their Thirty
nine Articles, their Methodist and Con
gregational creeds, their Universalist
creed. but say to you, believe in my
gospel if you would be saved from your
sins, for my word is life and salvation. !"
Much of the power of Christ's word
lay in this fact, that he was an origina-
tor. Let us be thankful that he had
not the formal training in systematic
theology which was given in the school
of the Rabbits. Let us be thankful that
he did not speak as the theologians; let
US be thankful that he cared nothing
for bad precedent-as Theodore Park
or said once, "a lie is none the less
lie for being an old one." Let us be
thankful that instead of contenting
himself with the doctrines handed down
from the past he rose above the limita-
lions of his age and birth and proclaim
ed new dispensation.
One more thing we must consider be-
fore closing, and that is, the nature of
this authority with which Christ spoke
He had a reason for disregarding prec-
edent-for not speaking as the scribes.
This authority was born of the con-
seriousness of being the medium of
revelation from on high. The gospels,
and especially the fourth gospel, are
full of this thought. my doctrine is
not mine, but his that sent me-" "As
the Father gave me commandment,
even so l do" In the same line of
thought are the many texts affirming
the unity of Christ with the Father,
from the rigid and mechanical interpre-
tation of which literary forms of state
ment has been invented the unscriptur-
al and irrational theological vagary
known as the doctrine of the Trinity.
The obvious art is that Christ claim
ed unity with the Father in the spirit